My M60 Mtech II dream

[flyboyx]

I'm impressed with your workmanship!

[P Arkus]

Thank you! This is my first engine "build" (for lack of better term) and swap so there have been numerous times where I have stood in my garage feeling overwhelmed and just staring at a dismantled engine and an empty engine bay. But with the help of great friends and great communities like R3v, I seem to keep pushing through!

[P Arkus]

Took advantage of the nice weather this weekend and started to dye my carpet black. Ran out of product after the second coat so i picked some more up and finished this evening.

I used Dupli-Color vinyl and fabric dye and it turned out awesome. I brushed the carpet out after each coat to ensure it still moved freely and that i got all angles of the fibers. Its a bit stiffer than stock, but i cant say i've ever touched my carpet to ensure its softness while driving. I'll let the picture do the rest of the talking.

The upper piece is dyed, the lower piece is factory color.

[thedivision]

Where in Canada are you? Keep up the good work

[P Arkus]

I'm up in Calgary Alberta

[jpod999]

How's this project going?

[P Arkus]

Project is coming along slowly. I've been a bit behind due to a career change and a complete change in work hours, but i'm hoping this will soon give me some extra time to work on the car. I'll post an update in the next few days. Getting closer and closer!

[jpod999]

Glad to hear it!

[P Arkus]

So here is a very long overdue update. In a nutshell, the car is running! I switched careers back in January taking on a job that took up much more of my time. Realizing that I was way in over my head on this swap with all the fabrication involved, I towed the car to a friends house and paid him to finish the swap with my help so I could see and help the progress along the way. Many things changed along the way in comparison to the original plan, but I’m happy about the way it turned out. I’ll put some of the key changes here if anyone is interested.

1) We used the stock E30 coolant tank instead of the E34 540 after countless hours spent trying to figure out how to mount the 540 tank without too much interference and modification from the hood. We decided that the E30 tank would look much better and allow us to make use of the 318is wiring covers and the M3 wiring cover. The 318is covers had to be trimmed and modified neatly but it turned out nicely.

2) To make the coolant houses for the heater core a bit simpler, we also swapped out the rear coolant accumulator for one from a 740i. There is a slight difference on how many outlets it has and the positioning of the outlets.

3) I really liked the original positioning of the oil filter housing on the block of the 540i, but due to its interference for the upper rad hose, this had to be changed. We used an E39 housing and built some brackets to hold it behind the driver side headlight.

4) I’m using a large velocity stack air intake which takes up a lot of space on the passenger side and for this reason I don’t have a windshield washer reservoir planned out yet. Still looking into that.

5) I used the Garagistic exhaust manifolds, but the passenger side was about 2-3mm from the footwell. I really didn’t want to mash in the footwell, so the exhaust shop welded an extension to the manifold, then put vbands on after for ease of future removal and re-installation.

6) Also used the Garagistic 6speed driveshaft, but it wasn’t aligning properly. We built some temporary shims to lower the center bearing of the driveshaft, and over winter I will have to remove the driveshaft and modify the ears so it sits straight.

Those were the major changes that we had to do. The car is now running, but there are definitely some kinks to work out.

1) It has quite a lumpy idle at this time. This could be due to many reasons. I know I have an exhaust leak somewhere on the driver side before the o2 sensor. Im guessing its either at the exhaust manifold to engine block connection, or at the part where the exhaust shop welded the extension to the garagistic header. Will need to find that leak and fix it.

2) Check for vacuum leaks. So far I don’t know if there are any, but once I fix the exhaust leak, I’m going to do a smoke test just to ensure its all running nice and smooth.

3) Brakes are virtually non-existant. I used the Garagistic bracket with Wilwood pedals and the recommended master cylinders. Using old brakes at this point but still need to fiddle with the balance bar to adjust the bias properly. Will be looking at getting the IE BBK pretty soon to help out with the stopping power.

4) Power steering. This one is being a real bitch to me. Originally, I had a Z3 2.7 L2L steering rack that I bought from rack doctor. Using the original steering pump, we put the car together, and when I would turn the wheel sharply when the car was on the ground (stationary), it would make a strange vibration and loud noise. It was also creating quite the whine from the pump. We replaced the steering pump with a refurbished unit, and same thing was happening. So my friend replaced the Z3 rack with his E36 M3 rack. The vibration stopped, but still while driving, it whines like crazy! As the revs go up, the whine gets worse and then it basically screams when you are turning a corner, unless press in the clutch and coast through the turn at which point it quiets down a bit. We are quite puzzled by this. I’ve talked to some friends and most think that the refurbished pump is garbage and this is whats causing the problem, but the other consensus is that perhaps the steering pump is too powerful for an E36 or E30 rack. The E34’s had a steering box instead of a rack, so we are wondering if that has something to do with it.

Was really hoping to get some help with this last issue as I would love to put back my Z3 rack and run that. I know that deleting PS is also an option, but I’d rather leave that as Plan Z. Has anyone had any issues with getting their power steering going with this swap? Would love to hear your input.

I’ll take some pics of the engine bay and post them up a bit later. Still need to put back the interior and some of the Mtech trim pieces on the outside of the car. Now that its back home, I can start slowly working out the kinks and hopefully have it running smoothly before the snow falls here!

P.S. if you took the time to read all this, thank you for your support!:)

[JGood]

The m60 power steering pump works fine with the e36 rack. I'm guessing you have another bad pump, or a clogged/restricted reservoir or hose.

[DesertBMW]

Post some new photos of it

[flyboyx]

I agree with jgood. There is a bypass in the ps pump to avoid this problem. Can you still send it back for a replacement?

[delamaize]

The m60 power steering pump works fine with the e36 rack. I'm guessing you have another bad pump, or a clogged/restricted reservoir or hose.

Not to Thread Hijack, but do you know if the M60 PS pump will work with a E46 rack?

[flyboyx]

should be no problems

[The Dark Side of Will]

2) To make the coolant houses for the heater core a bit simpler, we also swapped out the rear coolant accumulator for one from a 740i. There is a slight difference on how many outlets it has and the positioning of the outlets.

I'm curious... do you have part numbers or applications? I guess with some jiggery pokery in RealOEM I could find the right apps/parts.

Pics? Now I'm curious.

ETA: your pump is hosed. Get a new one.